BINGO and Board Games: One Association’s Story on How to Create Learning Experiences that Lead to Action
“Nancy, nonprofits need help understanding finance. They are losing their IRS status. Fraud is happening. You need to run a workshop.” So explained a founding board member.
“Yes, I see the problem,” I replied. “But there are 58,000 nonprofits in Washington State. That’s roughly 580,000 board members. A major mountain range cuts the state in half. Where should I schedule that training?”
This challenge was the genesis of Finance Unlocked for Nonprofits, a set of resources aimed at strengthening what board members know and can do related to nonprofit finance. At the time we were getting started, another organization offered a training on finance, a subject they described as being as fun a getting a root canal, yet important. (Great marketing. Too bad no one signed up.) Finance Unlocked for Nonprofits intentionally abbreviates to FUN and features an improv actor to fight fear with laughter. It turns out that there are five main ideas every board member needs to know—how to read Balance Sheets and Income Statements, the importance of the 990, Giving, and Oversight. It spells BINGO. Materials include a BINGO card with key information. Yes, we play BINGO at trainings.
FUN inspired BIG (Boards in Gear) and then SPIN (Strategic Planning in Nonprofits). It informed “Let’s Go Legal” on nonprofit law and a few other toolkits as well. Every toolkit includes a set of short videos that maximize where people can learn: alone, in peer groups, and in workshops (or webinars). A workbook provides high-level information and action-focused ideas. A game invites people to laugh and learn together. Any serious board toolkit must include a board game, right?
FUN, BIG, and SPIN also yielded an instructional design method – Chunk, Flip, Guide, Laugh— that serves the different interests and needs of our diverse members. We take a complicated topic and ran it through a process that yields enough knowledge, skills, and tools for people to be able to implement an idea or change a behavior. In short, this process involves four big questions:
CHUNK: If they only knew 3-5 things about this topic, what would they need to know?
FLIP: How can you capture content in a way that lets you use it again in a different time or place?
GUIDE: If you were to do what you are telling others to do, what would be your next 3 steps?
LAUGH: How do you honor and harness the emotion that people tend to feel on this topic?
We know so much about how adults learn. We know that adult learning within our associations is less about learning and more about closing a performance gap between where they are now and where they would like to be. It is exciting to see what happens when we take the important information we need to get across and make it fun.
About Nancy Bacon:
Nancy Bacon serves as the Director of Learning & Engagement for Washington Nonprofits, Washington’s state association for all nonprofits. She works at the intersection of nonprofits and adult learning to create learning experiences that move people to action.
Related websites: www.washingtonnonprofits. www.wanonprofitinstitute.org.
Blog: www.chunkflipguidelaugh.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancybaconseattle
Twitter: @bacon_world
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